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Air and Missile Defense: Transformations for 21st-Century Warfighting

Air and Missile Defense: Transformations for
21st-Century Warfighting

                                                                                            Conrad J. Grant and Matthew Montoya

ABSTRACT
At the turn of the century, air and missile defense (AMD) warfighting challenges had become
increasingly complex, requiring defensive systems to be more capable, resilient, robust, and able
to fulfill multiple missions. In response to these challenges, the AMD community made significant
advances in the use of multispectrum and multilayered engagement systems, as well as space
systems, and cooperation with partners. The transformation of AMD capabilities during the early
21st century pushed the edges of technology integration, operational utility, and coordination of
complex global systems of systems. At the forefront of these advances, the Johns Hopkins Univer-
sity Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) has provided game-changing thought leadership, capabil-
ity innovations, and timely, pragmatic solutions. This article describes some of these transforma-
tive capabilities and is dedicated to the APL Air and Missile Defense Sector staff members who
contributed to them.

THE TURN OF THE CENTURY: FOUNDATIONAL
AIR AND MISSILE DEFENSE WARFIGHTING
CAPABILITIES
   The US Navy’s air and missile defense (AMD)                                      US Navy to counter a host of evolving threats. Capa-
capabilities at the turn of the century relied on solid                             bilities included phased-array radars to handle multiaxis
foundational elements, many of which derived from                                   threats; integrated combat system decision aids to help
initial concepts developed by APL staff members and                                 reduce engagement timelines; complex missile systems
later from rigorous systems engineering performed by                                to counter more challenging air and ballistic missiles;
APL staff members. The hallmark of APL’s contributions                              and integrated combat systems to coordinate the plan-
was the development of close working relationships                                  ning, detection, control, and engagement functions for
with government and industry, enabling delivery of                                  synchronized fire control solutions.
significant capabilities to counter the advance of air and                              During this period of foundational AMD develop-
missile threats.                                                                    ment, APL created seminal capability concepts for the
   These foundational warfighting capabilities became                               Standard Missile, Aegis, and Ship-Self Defense System
the backbone of 20th-century AMD and enabled the                                    (SSDS) combat systems, as well as for the SPY-1 radar

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Air and Missile Defense: Transformations for 21st-Century Warfighting - Johns Hopkins University Applied ...
C. J. Grant and M. Montoya

    system. Working as either a tech-
    nical direction agent or a trusted
    agent for the government team,
    APL led the way in develop-
    ment of innovative algorithms;
    advanced radar concepts; com-
    plex multisensor solutions; open-
    architecture approaches; and
    integrated missile and combat
    system solutions.
       During the latter part of
    the 20th century, APL led the
    way to network these individual
    combat and sensor systems to
    enhance situational awareness
    of the battlespace, provide multi­
    sensor and multispectral threat
    pictures, and form the founda-
    tion for extended engagements
    and fire control solutions using
    nonorganic sensors. Leading Figure 1. A scenario illustrating the complex AMD mission context. Current and emerging
    the innovation, demonstration, challenges are highlighted, including extended battlespace and multiaxis, multispectral, and
    and fielding of the Cooperative multimission threats.
    Engagement Capability (CEC),
    APL teamed with government and industry partners                       advanced warfighting technologies and capabilities are
    to provide the war­fighter with extended fire-control-                 the foundation for 21st-century warfighting.
    quality data at longer ranges, increasing missile engage-                  As the AMD warfighting mission becomes even
    ment battlespace and over-the-horizon capability. This                 more complex, with extended battlespaces and multi-
    extended engagement capability helped pave the way for                 axis, multispectral, and multimission threats, there is
    21st-century warfighting and set the stage for transfor-               greater potential for adversaries to overwhelm our defen-
    mational 21st-century AMD.                                             sive systems. Therefore, war­fighters and system develop-
                                                                           ers must team to develop concepts and capabilities that
                                                                           proactively address current and emerging AMD mission
    CRITICAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO 21ST-                                        challenges. Figure 1 depicts the current and emerging
    CENTURY WARFIGHTING                                                    complex AMD mission context. Within this opera-
                                                                           tional tapestry, all the previously mentioned challenges
    Background                                                             are highlighted: extended battlespace and multiaxis,
       Warfighting approaches in the                                       multispectral, and multimission threats. Over the last
    mid-20th century often focused
    on single-purpose/single-mission                                                  – Operational data collection
                                                                                      – Lessons learned
    systems because enabling tech-
                                                         – Capabilities improvement
    nologies were not mature enough                      – Needs definition
                                                                                                                             – Test and evaluation
                                                                                                                             – Product development
    to support more complex war-                                                                                                and production
    fighting needs. Examples of these
                                                                                                           Operations
    germinal warfighting capabilities         – Data collection
    include early radar systems and           – Mission                   Technology
                                                performance
    manually targeted and grav-                 analysis
    ity guided bombs. However, the
    latter part of the 20th century                                                                                 – Prototype development
    saw the emergence of enabling – Enabling science and technology                                                 – Performance demonstration
                                                                                                                    – Critical field experiments
    technologies that provided the – Hypothesis, concept development,
                                           trade-offs, and critical experiments
    necessary materials, computer – Modeling and simulation
    processing, software approaches,
    and systems engineering knowl- Figure 2. APL’s leadership roles across the life cycle of AMD capability development. As a
    edge to realize more complex technical direction agent and trusted agent to the government, APL staff members collabo-
    warfighting capabilities. These rate with government and industry partners to develop, test, and field essential capabilities.

84­­­­                                                              Johns Hopkins APL Technical Digest, Volume 35, Number 2 (2020), www.jhuapl.edu/techdigest
Air and Missile Defense: Transformations for 21st-Century Warfighting - Johns Hopkins University Applied ...
Air and Missile Defense: Transformations for 21st-Century Warfighting

20 years, APL has contributed to developing new and
essential capabilities by working with government spon-
sors and stakeholders as a technical direction agent and
trusted agent (Figure 2). APL staff members collaborate
with government and industry partners to develop com-
prehensive and extensible requirements and solutions, as
well as to execute rigorous test, evaluation, and opera-
tional fielding approaches.

Aegis Weapon System
    Many of the new and essential AMD capabilities
that have evolved over the last 20 years are built on the
foundation of the Aegis Weapon System. Near the end
of the 20th century, the Aegis system largely focused
on anti-air warfare (AAW) to counter threat aircraft
and cruise missiles. However, with the onset of the first
Gulf War in the early 1990s, defense against ballistic
missile threats (Ballistic Missile Defense, or BMD)
became a key driver for the next 20 years of Aegis
Weapon System evolution.
    As part of a team whose members spanned govern-
ment, industry, and government laboratories, APL
helped develop the new Aegis requirements and capa-
bilities associated with engaging ballistic missile threats
in both exo- and endo-atmospheric regions. These
essential developments included the ability to coun-
ter a threat that flew much higher, farther, and faster
than anything Aegis had engaged before. With APL                                    Figure 3. Aegis/SM-3 launch during the Burnt Frost event. This
staff members’ expertise in all phases (detect, control,                            critical operation required the APL, government, and industry
and engage) of the fire control loop and the various                                team to make rapid modifications to the Aegis BMD System so
elements of the Aegis weapon system involved in each                                that it could successfully intercept an errant intelligence satel-
of those phases, the Lab played a central role in this                              lite and rupture its fuel tank before the satellite reentered Earth’s
development. The Aegis BMD capability was iteratively                               atmosphere.
designed, built, and successfully tested in 33 of 40 test
missions of increasing difficulty and complexity. This                              an error that would have resulted in mission failure had
development, integration, and aggressive test activity led                          it not been found and fixed.
to a robust and versatile system design.                                                These new and essential AAW and BMD capabilities
    The versatility and effectiveness of the Aegis                                  were tremendous breakthroughs; however, the need to
BMD capability was demonstrated during Burnt Frost                                  merge AAW and BMD capabilities into a more robust
(Figure 3) in February 2008. For this important mis-                                integrated air and missile defense (IAMD) approach was
sion, the government, industry, and laboratory team was                             evident. IAMD is both operationally and programmati-
called on to make rapid changes (in less than 6 weeks) to                           cally necessary because it provides the ability for a single
the weapon system so that it could be used to destroy the                           integrated combat system to flexibly perform multimis-
errant NROL-21 satellite before it could threaten popu-                             sion operations, giving each ship greater flexibility and
lation centers with a full tank of frozen hydrazine. The                            utility. IAMD was introduced into Aegis ships through
initial concept was based on a paper APL staff members                              Baseline 9 and will be incorporated in the majority of
had authored. APL engineers did the predictive per-                                 the Aegis ships in the coming decades.
formance analysis used to verify the capability for the                                 Another innovation APL contributed was the ability
National Security Council and ultimately the president                              to deploy the Aegis BMD capability in an “ashore” config-
of the United States. APL worked alongside Lockheed                                 uration to support the defense of inland assets. This capa-
Martin and Raytheon to propose and implement the                                    bility is called Aegis Ashore (Figure 4). APL proposed the
changes to Aegis and Standard Missile. APL tested                                   original concept for Aegis Ashore in a Missile Defense
the final seeker and guidance code for the Standard                                 Agency study, helped drive the systems engineering with
Missile-3 (SM-3) in its Guidance Systems Evaluation                                 rigorous requirements analysis, and proceeded in its tech-
Laboratory (GSEL) before the mission and uncovered                                  nical direction agent role through system development,

Johns Hopkins APL Technical Digest, Volume 35, Number 2 (2020), www.jhuapl.edu/techdigest                                                                        85­­­­
Air and Missile Defense: Transformations for 21st-Century Warfighting - Johns Hopkins University Applied ...
C. J. Grant and M. Montoya

                                                                                          Standard Missile
                                                                                              Another cornerstone of new and essential US Navy
                                                                                          AMD capabilities that has evolved along with the
                                                                                          Aegis Weapon System is the family of Standard Missiles
                                                                                          (Figure 5). Working closely with the Aegis team, the
                                                                                          Standard Missile team develops companion intercep-
                                                                                          tors to work in concert with the evolving Aegis Weapon
                                                                                          System. The Standard Missile family currently includes
                                                                                          SM-2, SM-6, and SM-3. APL serves as the technical
                                                                                          direction agent for the all-up-round (AUR) for all vari-
                                                                                          ants of Standard Missile. As the technical direction
                                                                                          agent, APL is a community thought leader for the over-
                                                                                          all strategy, development, and fielding of Standard Mis-
                                                                                          sile systems.
    Figure 4. Aegis Ashore. This configuration supports the defense
                                                                                              SM-2 is the primary defense for Aegis AAW capabil-
    of inland assets.
                                                                                          ity as well as for several international combat systems.
                                                                                          The SM-2 missile system has evolved during the 21st
    integration and test, and fielding of the system. The Aegis                           century to handle more complex and challenging targets
    Ashore system conducted its first flight test intercept                               and environmental conditions with more stressful end-
    against a live target at the Pacific Missile Range Facility                           game requirements, and to include capabilities to com-
    in December 2015. Progressing from concept exploration                                municate with other combat systems and in alternative
    through fielding of the first capability in Romania in just                           operating modes. As the 21st century continues, SM-2
    over 6 years, Aegis Ashore was developed on a very com-                               will continue to add capabilities that will make it even
    pressed timeline, a noteworthy accomplishment that is a                               more flexible to support the increasingly complex and
    testament to the whole team, including APL.                                           challenging threat environment.

                                                                                           Terrier        SM-3
                                                                                           LEAP
                                                                                                         Aegis                                                Exo-
                                                                                                                         Blk IA   Blk IB    Blk IIA           BMD
                                                                                                              LEAP
                                                                                                         SBT                  PAC Phoenix
            Bumblebee Program
                                                                                                                             SM-2 Blk IV SBT
                                                                                              SM-2 Blk IV                                                     Endo-
                                                                                                                                SM-6 Dual I                   BMD
                                                                                               Area AAW                           SM-6 Dual II
           Cobra                                                                                        SM-6
                                                                                                                                                              AAW/
                                  Talos
             BTV       Talos                                                                                                           SM-6 Blk I             CMD/
                     prototype                                                                                                                                ASuW
                                                                                 SM-2
                                                                                                                                                              AAW/
                   RTV-N-6
                                                                  Blk I   Blk II Blk III/IIIA Blk IIIB Blk IIIB MU2                         SM-2 Active       CMD/
           CTV                                                                                                                                                ASuW
                 STV                                     SM-1
                            Adv. Terrier Terrier
                        STV-5             HT-3                                                                  No longer
                                                 SM-1
                              Tartar Improved             Blk V       Blk VI Blk VI A Blk VI B                  fielded in the
                                         Tartar Blk IV                                                          United States

         1945 1950         1955   1960    1965    1970      1975      1980     1985     1990     1995 2000 2005           2010     2015               2020
                                                                                                    Aircraft, cruise missiles, and
                       Bombers                      Aircraft and cruise missiles                      tactical ballistic missiles

                    Bear                                                                                  Exo

                                      AAW                                          AAW/CMD                        Endo        Missile defense

    Figure 5. History of the Standard Missile family. The family currently includes SM-2, SM-6, and SM-3. APL is the technical direction agent
    for the all-up-round (AUR) for all SM variants. Blk, Block; BTV, burner test vehicle; CMD, cruise missile defense; CTV, control test vehicle;
    ENDO, endo-atmospheric; EXO, exo-atmospheric; LEAP, Lightweight Exo-Atmospheric Projectile; MU2, Maneuverability Upgrade 2; PAC,
    Pacific; RTV, ramjet test vehicle; SBT, Sea-Based Terminal; STV, supersonic test vehicle; TBM, tactical ballistic missile.

86­­­­                                                                         Johns Hopkins APL Technical Digest, Volume 35, Number 2 (2020), www.jhuapl.edu/techdigest
Air and Missile Defense: Transformations for 21st-Century Warfighting - Johns Hopkins University Applied ...
Air and Missile Defense: Transformations for 21st-Century Warfighting

    The SM-6 missile system
was originally conceived
to perform AAW missions
at extended and over-the-
horizon ranges using an
active seeker that requires
no remote terminal illumi-                          Sensor system
nation of the target. The                                (E-2)
                                                                                                            Weapon
extended-range capability                                                                             (Standard Missile)
increases the Aegis Weapon                          Netted-sensor
System’s battlespace to                             element (CEC)
counter adversaries before
                                     Sensor system (SPY)
they become an imminent             Combat system (Aegis)                      External
threat to friendly forces. For-                                                 sensor
                                                                               systems
tuitously, as the capabilities
of the SM-6 weapon began
to be fully realized, the con-
cept of using this missile                                                                                       Threat
system in multiple missions
emerged. For example, the
                                  Figure 6. NIFC-CA concept and system elements. This capability extends the engagement battle­
use of SM-6 for BMD mis- space using an elevated sensor system for over-the-horizon situational awareness and fire control
sions was demonstrated as engagement capabilities.
part of the Sea-Based Ter-
minal (SBT) program to
counter ballistic missile threats in endo-atmospheric            of the pillars enabling future flexible warfighting para-
regions. More recently, Aegis and SM-6 demonstrated              digms. Because of its inherent capabilities to network
an extended-range surface-to-surface mode for anti-ship          fire-control-quality data among force participants, CEC
missions, and SM-6 is being considered for a number of           provides the foundation for net-centric and kill-web
other uses as well.                                              concepts recently articulated by Navy leadership. APL
    The SM-3 evolved over the last two decades to coun-          provided the thought leadership and vision to conceive,
ter threat ballistic missiles in exo-atmospheric regions.        develop, integrate, and field this foundational capabil-
The SM-3 missile system tightly coordinates with the             ity that enables the larger Navy approach of Naval Inte-
Aegis BMD Weapon System to provide robust hit-to-                grated Fire Control – Counter Air (NIFC-CA).
kill capability. Over the last 20 years, the SM-3 mis-               NIFC-CA (Figure 6) capability extends the engage-
sile system has evolved to handle more complex target            ment battlespace using an elevated sensor system for
scenes and more challenging end-game requirements,               over-the-horizon situational awareness and fire control
and to better integrate with the global Ballistic Missile        engagement capabilities. This extended battlespace
Defense System (BMDS). Most recently, Aegis BMD                  allows blue forces to intercept incoming threats at
successfully conducted its first live intercept test of          greater ranges, adding a significant defense-in-depth
the SM-3 Block IIA missile. The SM-3 Block IIA is a              layer for emerging war­fighter needs. APL was one of the
21-inch-diameter AUR with significant upgrades in the            original authors and thought leaders of the NIFC-CA
range and complexity of threats that can be engaged.             concept, supporting requirements development, early
The SM-3 Block IIA is developed cooperatively by the             prototyping, element-level testing and demonstrations,
United States and Japan to defeat medium- and interme-           and integrated demonstrations of the system of systems.
diate-range ballistic missiles. Moving forward, the US           Early evolutions of the NIFC-CA capability have been
Navy and MDA will continue to rely on SM-3 to provide            successfully demonstrated, and APL is currently work-
reliable and highly effective BMD.                               ing with sponsors to evolve and expand on this new
                                                                 and essential capability for use with other platforms
Naval Integrated Fire Control                                    and missions.
   To generate the best possible track picture among a
diverse set of operational sensors, extend the blue-force                           Ballistic Missile Defense
battlespace, and support engagements based on data from                                Beyond the evolution of the Aegis, Standard Missile,
remote sensors, APL conceived of and helped develop                                 and CEC capabilities, APL has been an AMD com-
CEC during the 1980s and 1990s. CEC became opera-                                   munity driver, thought leader, and capability provider
tional at the turn of the 21st century and is currently one                         for a number of other sponsors and stakeholders. One

Johns Hopkins APL Technical Digest, Volume 35, Number 2 (2020), www.jhuapl.edu/techdigest                                                                      87­­­­
Air and Missile Defense: Transformations for 21st-Century Warfighting - Johns Hopkins University Applied ...
C. J. Grant and M. Montoya

                                                     Aegis BMD balanced investment strategy               Land-based
                                                          - Aegis BMD signal processor                    SM-3 study
                                           Midcourse                                                       (initiated)
                                             Space        - SM-3  Block IB (2-color optics)          2009
                    Phase One              Experiment
                                                                                                              Launch-on-
                   Engineering                1996          Ground-based Midcourse                               remote
                       Team                            Defense initial defensive operations                      FTM-15
                      (POET)                      Navy                     2004                                   2011     Space-based
                       1988                      Theater                                                                      (STSS)
                                                  Wide                           Mission      Burnt Frost
                                                                               Readiness    STSS follow-on               Launch-on-remote
                                                  1997                         Task Force                                     FTM-20
                                                                                              2008
                                                                                  2005                                         2013

                  1984–1989
                   Delta 180      1991–1995
                    series
                                  Terrier LEAP          1996–2001
                                                     Navy area program
                                                     - SM-2 Block IV/IVA
                                                     - Expanded lab                                       2009–Present
                                                       commitment
                                                       BMDO                                              Phased adaptive
                            1989–1993                                                                    approach
          Special Project Flight Experiment                                                                - PTSS
            - Brilliant Pebbles                                                                            - SM-3 Block IIB
            - Phenomenology data              1996–1999               2003–2004                                                 2013–2014
                                          National Missile    Japan cooperative study                                         Ground-based
                                          Defense operational - Architectures for defense of Japn                          Midcourse Defense
                                          evaluation            - Outcome: SM-3 cooperative                                    independent
                                            - Early ITFs          development and SM-3 Block IIA                            fleet assessment
                                            - BMC2 algorithms
                                            - UEWR BMD mode

    Figure 7. APL’s history in BMD. BMC2, battle management command and control; FTM, flight test mission; ITF, interoperability task force;
    PTSS, Precision Tracking Space System; STSS, Space Tracking Surveillance System; UEWR, Upgraded Early Warning Radar.

    of those primary stakeholders is the Missile Defense                             LOOKING AHEAD: FURTHER TRANSFORMATION
    Agency (MDA). MDA was established in 2002 with the
    primary mission of architecting, developing, testing, and
                                                                                     OF 21ST-CENTURY AMD CAPABILITIES
    fielding BMD systems in close coordination with the                                  The capabilities APL spearheaded during the first part
    services (Air Force, Army, and Navy). APL joined as                              of the new millennium have contributed significantly to
    an early technical leader with MDA (and predecessor                              achieving needed 21st-century warfighting capabilities.
    organizations the Strategic Defense Initiative Office, or                        However, as the threat becomes more challenging, there
    SDIO, and the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization,                            is a need to further advance the state of AMD.
    or BMDO) by generating early ballistic missile adver-                                It is clear that the primary challenges posed by air and
    sary frameworks along with approaches to counter these                           missile threats will continue to become more difficult to
    adversaries through integrated capability concepts that                          counter. Large coordinated threat raids, sophisticated
    coordinate BMDS assets. Figure 7 shows APL’s history                             multimode seekers, precision guidance systems, highly
    in BMD.                                                                          maneuverable airframes, low signatures, and complex
        Over the last 20 years, APL has made critical con-                           countermeasures and decoys are but a few areas of rapid
    tributions to concept development, requirements devel-                           threat evolution. Less traditional air threat capabilities
    opment, system engineering, and fielding of the BMDS                             are also emerging, including those associated with small-
    radar, the TPY-2. The TPY-2 is currently deployed in                             and medium-size controlled or autonomous air vehicles
    coordination with several coalition partners. Develop-                           operated singly or in coordinated swarms. These threats,
    ing the TPY-2 system allowed MDA to begin realizing                              when combined with more sophisticated electronic war-
    its vision for an agile, relocatable, and extensible set of                      fare and cyber warfare, will create a very complex envi-
    capabilities that could be deployed around the world. In                         ronment for AMD systems. Finally, the introduction of
    addition, APL has led the way on the use of space sys-                           hypersonics has created a new threat challenge-regime
    tems and associated command and control capabilities                             for air defense systems.
    for the BMDS and has worked closely with the Ground-                                 Along with these challenges, advances in threat
    based Midcourse Defense (GMD) program to enable a                                technology offer an opportunity. The potential adver-
    more robust BMD capability for MDA and associated                                sary’s use of multiaxis and multispectral systems to stress
    stakeholders.                                                                    current AMD capabilities has brought to light the need

88­­­­                                                                     Johns Hopkins APL Technical Digest, Volume 35, Number 2 (2020), www.jhuapl.edu/techdigest
Air and Missile Defense: Transformations for 21st-Century Warfighting - Johns Hopkins University Applied ...
Air and Missile Defense: Transformations for 21st-Century Warfighting

to develop more robust defenses that work in different                              article. It is clear from the capabilities delivered in just
spectrums and modes to avoid single-point failures. The                             the last 20 years that this organization is poised to carry
use of robust electronic warfare systems, coordinated                               on the legacy of its 75+-year heritage when countering
across ships and aircraft in the force at subwavelength                             future air and missile threats.
timing, can create effective countermeasures to even the
most sophisticated threat seekers when combined with
coordinated decoys.
                                                                                                                 Conrad J. Grant, Chief Engineer,
   The addition of lasers on some of those ships and                                                             Johns Hopkins University Applied
aircraft provides countermeasures for multimode seekers                                                          Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD
and electro-optic/infrared sensors. Increasing the power                                                        Conrad J. Grant, APL’s chief engineer,
on those lasers, along with the employment of pulsed                                                            earned a BS in physics from the Uni-
energy weapons (such as high-power microwave), could                                                            versity of Maryland, College Park, and
create effective and efficient weapons to counter small,                                                        an MS in applied physics and an MS
unattended air vehicles and, in the future, perhaps even                                                        in computer science from Johns Hop-
                                                                                            kins University. He served for over a decade as the head
the more hardened air and missile threats.                                                  of the APL Air and Missile Defense Sector, where he led
   These new capabilities, coupled with traditional                                         1100 staff members developing advanced air and missile
hard-kill systems with improvements of their own, will                                      defense systems for the US Navy and the Missile Defense
help lead the way for future integrated AMD systems.                                        Agency. He has extensive experience in the application
Multipurpose systems must be the norm in the future                                         of systems engineering to the design, development, test
                                                                                            and evaluation, and fielding of complex systems involving
to address the stressing adversary environment, dynamic                                     multi­sensor integration, command and control, human–
operating needs, and ever-present fiscal realities.                                         machine interfaces, and guidance and control systems.
   The use of autonomous surface, air, and subsurface                                       His engineering leadership in APL prototype systems for
vehicles, in numbers, will also be necessary to achieve                                     the Navy is now evidenced by capabilities on board over
asymmetric AMD advantages. These autonomous vehi-                                           100 cruisers, destroyers, and aircraft carriers of the US
                                                                                            Navy and its allies. His email address is conrad.grant@
cles will carry sensor and weapon payloads to the loca-                                     jhuapl.edu.
tions where they are most effective, while reducing their
vulnerability through dispersal around the force being
protected. As our forces of the future become more agile
                                                                                                                 Matthew       Montoya, Asymmetric
and dispersed to counter a more robust and dispersed                                                             Operations Sector, Johns Hopkins
threat environment, the means by which we provide                                                                University Applied Physics Labora-
AMD must follow suit.                                                                                            tory, Laurel, MD
   Accounting for our dependence on sensors and                                                                  Matthew Montoya is a chief engineer
assured communications, and considering the adver-                                                               in APL’s Asymmetric Operations
sary’s electronic warfare and cyber warfare capabilities,                                                        Sector. He earned a BS in physics from
                                                                                                                 Colorado State University, MS degrees
future AMD systems will require robust electronic pro-
                                                                                            in mathematics/applied math and systems engineering from
tection, information assurance measures, and proactive                                      Johns Hopkins University, an MBA from Loyola College
cyber defenses to survive even the early stages of war-                                     Maryland (now Loyola University Maryland), and a DEng
fare. Incorporating communications that are not based                                       in systems engineering from George Washington Univer-
on radio frequency, like free-space optics, will provide                                    sity. He has worked across several APL mission areas and
                                                                                            sectors where he has been responsible for systems engineer-
high-bandwidth data transfers, while being virtually
                                                                                            ing, technical direction, systems integration, and perfor-
undetectable and immune to jamming.                                                         mance assessments. During his nearly 20 years in the Air
   Finally, the continued evolution of synchronized                                         and Missile Defense Sector, he was a project, program, and
comprehensive layered defense concepts and system-of-                                       program area manager and mission area chief engineer. In
systems approaches will be necessary to integrate and                                       his current role as chief engineer in the Asymmetric Oper-
                                                                                            ations Sector, Dr. Montoya has led technical efforts for
orchestrate these new and essential capabilities into a
                                                                                            several engineering studies and assessments to help guide
unified 21st-century AMD warfighting model.                                                 and impact programmatic and operational decisions. Addi-
   We recognize the APL Air and Missile Defense                                             tionally, he has been a key thought leader in incubating
Sector staff members for their innovation and systems                                       and implementing APL strategic plans and initiatives. His
engineering discipline that helped create the essential                                     email address is matthew.montoya@jhuapl.edu.
21st-century AMD transformations discussed in this

Johns Hopkins APL Technical Digest, Volume 35, Number 2 (2020), www.jhuapl.edu/techdigest                                                                           89­­­­
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